Professor Axel Kahn

Professor Axel Kahn (MD, PhD) is the President (Dean) of the Paris Descartes University since January 2008. He was the head of the Institut Cochin in Paris (FR), a large laboratory amounting more than 500 persons and specialized in biomedical research (2002-2008). His research focuse on genetics, gene therapy, cancer, development and physiology for which he has received several honorary distinctions. He has written eleven books on modern biology, genes, and ethics, as well as some 500 papers in international journals. For nine years, he presided over the Biomolecular Engineering Committee of the French Ministry of Agriculture. He was the European Group on Life Sciences’ President from 2000, when the Group started, until the end of 2001. He is has been a member of the French National Advisory Ethics Committee from 1992 until 2004.
He is also the President of the International Foundation for Disability and of the Ethics Committee of the National French Association against cancer.

Axel Kahn is Officer of the Legion of Honour, Officer of the National Order of Merit, Officer of the Agricultural Merit, Chevalier of Art and Letters.